The CATO-2 programme will focus a significant part of its applied research efforts a.o. on the port of Rotterdam area (off-shore included) and the Northern Netherlands region. This is in line with the Dutch ambition to realise large scale demonstration sites in these regions. At the same time it will forge a strong link between the CATO-2 programme and the regional needs. Additional locations are in Limburg.

CATO-2 research will be performed in five Sub Programme lines. Dissemination and international cooperation are listed under programme coordination.

The five subprogrammes are:

• CO2 Capture
• Transport and CCS chain integration
• Subsurface storage of CO2 and monitoring storage
• Regulation and safety
• Public perception

The first CATO programme (CO2 Afvang, Transport en Opslag) was initiated in 2001 and acquired funding in 2003 (25.4 million, 50% of which was funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs). For CATO (in future CATO-1) with its 17 partners the actual work started in 2004.

The programme continued until the end of 2008; some PhD work was ongoing until 2009.

The aim of CATO-1 was to identify whether and how CCS would contribute to a sustainable energy system in the Netherlands from an economical, technical, social and ecological point of view, and to determine the conditions for implementation of CCS in the Dutch energy system. A prime characteristic of the programme was that all major stakeholders and a number of research groups from very different fields of expertise were working together within an integrated framework. CATO-1 has provided several innovations that have put the Netherlands in a leading position in the international CCS community.

The mid-term external review of CATO-1 took place at the end of August 2007.

The international review committee formulated the following conclusions with regard to the follow-up of the programme:

"CATO has developed into a successful research network in the Netherlands and has "de facto" become the Dutch national CCS programme. It should be noted that this was not the original intention but through the nature of the activity, CATO has initiated numerous CCS projects in the Netherlands that are now highly relevant to the new national Dutch policy on climate change where CCS is recognised as an important element. CATO is therefore a ‘gift to government' and has established a much needed basis of a national capability in CCS. CATO is well linked to CCS research activities internationally and especially in Europe. It is one of the few national European CCS programmes covering the entire CCS chain. The active participation of industry, research institutes universities and NGO's makes CATO a powerful consortium which is similar in nature to the highly influential ZEP EU Technology Platform."

Read more on the results of CATO-1 in the book  or order the book

Participants in the CATO-2 programme are involved in many projects and networks regaring CCS, like those funded by the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes. This will help to ensure coordination with ongoing and envisaged research efforts in these programmes. For those projects that do not include any CATO-2 participants, CATO-2 will seek to maintain close contact and learn from their findings.

Members of the CATO-2 programme are  also involved in international Boards such as IEA-GHG and ETP-ZEP. 

CATO-2 will follow developments in the CCS Demonstration Network, which will be established by DG-TREN of the European Commission. It will keep track of the progress made by demonstrations elsewhere in Europe and outside Europe and communicate lessons learned to the Dutch demonstrations. Equally, it will be a channel to convey Dutch experiences in CCS demonstrations across our borders.

In addition, there are numerous bilateral activities between the Netherlands and various non-European countries in various stages of develpoment. These activities include diplomatic as well as academic exchanges.